There is a version of Michael Polk Newell Brands that spent years shaping decisions from the top of a public company, and a newer version that now works elbow to elbow with a much smaller team. Both, he says, have taught him something different about leadership.
Trading Distance for Involvement
At Newell Brands, where Michael Polk served as chief executive until 2019, much of his role centered on allocating resources and influencing choices made several layers below him in the organization. Implus LLC, the private fitness accessories company he joined in 2020, works differently. Polk now spends the bulk of his time directly involved in brand and business development alongside his own team, rather than shaping outcomes from a distance through management structures.
What Changes When the Company Is Smaller
Implus operates sixteen brands with a global reach but far fewer resources than a company the size of Newell Brands, and Michael Polk credits that scarcity with pushing both him and his employees toward faster, more hands-on decision-making. He has described senior leaders at smaller companies as something closer to player-coaches, embedded in the daily choices their teams face rather than removed from them. That closeness, in his experience, also means exposure to more parts of the business at once, from sourcing and manufacturing to how products actually reach retailers.
Michael Polk has framed this shift not as a step down from his years running a public company but as a return to the kind of work that first drew him to business, long before boardrooms and quarterly reporting cycles became part of the job. For him, leading Implus has meant trading scale for proximity, and so far he considers that a fair trade, one that has kept him more engaged with the day-to-day realities of the business than his final years at Newell Brands did. See related link for more information.
More about Michael Polk on https://www.businessload.com/run-grow-business/michael-polk-newell-brands-former-ceo-shares-his-unique-approach-to-leading-through-transformation/